Wednesday, 19 October 2016

The decision made at Monday's Executive Board meeting to charge for green waste collection passed in the blink of an eye. I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago when it was before the relevant scrutiny committee. According to the officer's report, the new bin lorries lack the facility to take the current green waste binbags so a separate service will have to be arranged.

Anyway, as I think I've also mentioned before, Exec Board meetings, or rather the half-hour bit under the public spotlight, are little more than a PR exercise with everything decided before the meeting. With Meryl regaling the group with here recent exploits with the ARCH project and the Wellness Thing, this little sting from Plaid Cymru and the Indies went almost unnoticed.

From April next year it will cost you £48 a year, with payments spread over six months. If you can afford it as a one off payment, there's a 15% reduction, thereby penalising the less affluent. A nice little addition to your council tax. You will be supplied with a new shiny bin, with two sizes to choose from, although the cost will be the same.
There are no concessions for pensioners, or anyone else. Nor has there been any consultation or engagement with the elderly or disabled who will now have to manoeuvre a big plastic bin.

The hope is that more people will compost the waste or take it to their local recycling centre, the latter not exactly reducing the carbon footprint. Caebrwyn's gardening is more, er, rural, allowing a few sheep in when I can no longer see the bottom of the garden but this is not the case in our towns. I predict a little more fly-tipping and a lot more bonfires. Get your washing in.

6 comments:

Anonymous
said...

when south northants council had their pod lorry in june 2013, they continued to collect their garden waste on their blue bag day. wether this had a seperate compartment in their back, i'm not sure. they still continue to collect garden waste on recycling day but they since changed to wheelies.

other councils have a choice of wheelies and a much cheaper pay as you go bags option.

wether wales gov funding allows a council to purchase a pod lorry and a 3rd compartment for a seperate use i doubt as the specific purpose for a grant is for statutory recycling eg food waste. but if the council used the subscription to make up the cost of the 'extra' compartment, that's a bit complicated as well and would have ended up much cheaper anyway. and save the cost of hiring the wheelie lorries.

because the pod is sideways and wider compared to thin and long on the old lorry, maybe the shorter length of the blue bag/black bag shoot is stopping another compartment which seems a shame. if our black bags are less in amount, that could work with us.

just jope this wide pod isn't going to end up as a white elephant and underused, but WAF want to make food waste more accountable which means others are follow suit.

at the end of the day, all is needed is cost of collection, cost of receptable, a fraction of labour and extra bit of fuel when hitching a ride on another lorry, just the same way as the old system was and was paid for via the discretionary grant.. all they have to do is find a way to get space on the refuse lorry and use the subscription fee as the means to pay for the lift.

if the council did their homework with their offer of a half price composter, they haven't exactly worked out if people actually have the room for one...or two.. and the extraordinary rule of thumb that to do decent compost they need roughly half of each, so if someone has lawns and no leaves, they are stuffd. if someone has leaves and less grass, the same.. so something is bound to be thrown out somewhere aling the lines.

would be ironic to throw out a composter if that is the only space to fit in an imposed very expensive wheelie bin.

then again, why the need for a wheelie.. they don't need it to lift two light bags of leaves and will take 5 or 6 times as longer than by hand.. and if they are worried a thin bag will split, why dont they get the next size up or put the bag with a hole inside a fresh bag and double it up. the thicker the bag, the more it costs. then again still works out cheaper than the wheelies.

wheelies only tend to be efficient effirt and time wise when they are full up to the brim and heavier material not lighter material

Yet an other example of CCC acting without any consultation or indeed thinking through before agreeing in closed session, plans that will effect the People of Carmarthenshire. Considering the vast amounts of tax payers money that has been squandered on "Pet Projects"it is an absolute insult that Council Tax payers should be funding the costs of yet another poorly thought out idea.

I watched the last executive board meeting on the web and a couple of things struck me for the first time actually.

its telling how pam palmer was so ill prepared for the meeting. She totally and amusingly misunderstood the segment on housing policy. She asked a daft question and had to be corrected by Mark (or "Chief" as she calls him)

In addition Pam rambled quite badly when she spoke about the Boundaries Commission recommendations. She had to be prompted by a councillor to her right and again looked to the Chief to rescue her.

She would have had plenty of time to prepare - even to write a speech for delivery.

I have no need for a garden waste bin - so will the Council FORCE me to have and pay for something I don't need and wont use? if so, under what powers will they force me? Can I be forced to pay for unsolicited goods?

'The Claimant is a housewife, mother and amateur blogger. The defendants are a council and a chief executive. It is literally state versus citizen. In a large part, the origins of the entire case derive from the issue of getting ones voice heard at all'

'In light of the evidence, the allegations of perverting the course of justice are unsustainable. This is the most serious allegation and the Claimant deserves to have her reputation vindicated...Mr Davies' evidence was incoherent, confused and contradicted [his] statements given at the time...in short, Mr Davies' evidence of what happened has completely changed and he cannot be relied on'

(From closing submission for the claimant at trial, February 2013)

...In August 2016, following a very belated (three years later) complaint to the police by Mark James that I perverted the course of justice, the investigation was dropped as there was no evidence.

There never was going to be any evidence as I told the truth, on oath, at the time.